OK, so Dad has been reminiscing about his days in the Navy, so I broke out my photo albums from way back when. After Basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas some of us flew to Chaunte AFB in Rantoul, Illinois for further training. Among other things Chanute was the training school for Air Weather Service and for the USAF Firefighters. Our dorms were only a quarter,maybe a half, mile from the school building. White Hall, I think. But we still had to form up at , like, 0530 hours and we would march for 30 - 40 minutes to get there. The long way. So, by 5:30 you had to be up, cleaned up and to the chow hall and back. And on nights that lasted too long at the Golden Shield this was way too early. For a while I was one of the mass and believe me you can sleep and march at the same time. One street we crossed everyday with out halting, well, one day we halted. It was an olive drab human mass collision that movies are made of. In short order I volunteered for road guard duty and until I left I was the Point man. The Point man would go out and stop traffic and call out the guards. The Tail man would call the tail guards to relieve them and call them back in after the column passed. When a guard was tapped from behind he came to attention, barked an "ah-oo!" (salute if the vehicle you were holding was an officer), right face and double time back to the head of the column. We made it fun and were verbally complemented by some of the officers we held up while the column passed. From the barking we became the Road Dogs. The Point man I would shout the command, "Road dogs out!" and, of course the Tail man's command was, "Road Dogs, in!" I don't remember where all of these guys guys were from or where they went. Or what they did, for that matter. Some, like me, were going to weather school, and some of those went on to jump school to be a part of Para-Weather units. Right to left was Bowden (from New England, a weatherman who ended up in Caribou, Maine and then onto Ramstein AB, Germany, at the weather station across base from where I worked. Tim actually observed the weather while there), Dean, Me, Sweetman (a weather school wash back who I last heard went to jump school after Chanute), Sword and Van Brocklin. The picture was taken October 31, 1983. Our school started early August and ended November 5th.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Road Dogs of Chanute AFB
OK, so Dad has been reminiscing about his days in the Navy, so I broke out my photo albums from way back when. After Basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas some of us flew to Chaunte AFB in Rantoul, Illinois for further training. Among other things Chanute was the training school for Air Weather Service and for the USAF Firefighters. Our dorms were only a quarter,maybe a half, mile from the school building. White Hall, I think. But we still had to form up at , like, 0530 hours and we would march for 30 - 40 minutes to get there. The long way. So, by 5:30 you had to be up, cleaned up and to the chow hall and back. And on nights that lasted too long at the Golden Shield this was way too early. For a while I was one of the mass and believe me you can sleep and march at the same time. One street we crossed everyday with out halting, well, one day we halted. It was an olive drab human mass collision that movies are made of. In short order I volunteered for road guard duty and until I left I was the Point man. The Point man would go out and stop traffic and call out the guards. The Tail man would call the tail guards to relieve them and call them back in after the column passed. When a guard was tapped from behind he came to attention, barked an "ah-oo!" (salute if the vehicle you were holding was an officer), right face and double time back to the head of the column. We made it fun and were verbally complemented by some of the officers we held up while the column passed. From the barking we became the Road Dogs. The Point man I would shout the command, "Road dogs out!" and, of course the Tail man's command was, "Road Dogs, in!" I don't remember where all of these guys guys were from or where they went. Or what they did, for that matter. Some, like me, were going to weather school, and some of those went on to jump school to be a part of Para-Weather units. Right to left was Bowden (from New England, a weatherman who ended up in Caribou, Maine and then onto Ramstein AB, Germany, at the weather station across base from where I worked. Tim actually observed the weather while there), Dean, Me, Sweetman (a weather school wash back who I last heard went to jump school after Chanute), Sword and Van Brocklin. The picture was taken October 31, 1983. Our school started early August and ended November 5th.
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4 comments:
happy bd haney dad mom
Happy Happy Birthday! Hope it was a great day for you!
Hey, happy birthday (a day late) little bro.
Was it your birthday? Happy birthday. Chanute, what can I say, fun times. I was a road guard too. And yes the Golden Shield was hard on you in the early morning marches. Time there was Oct 1982-dec 1982. It is cold in Ill in Dec.
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